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Archive for the ‘photography’ Category

Diversity

Posted in from the dark room, life, photography, science on January 24, 2014| 1 Comment »

These are not my photos, but here are two amazing revelations of diversity.

The first is a magnification of grains of sand…..yes, sand, the kind of sand you find on the beach. Did you have any idea that grains of sand were so diverse?

IMG_0503

 

Then, you might have come across these amazing photos of snowflakes…..here is just one of them.

o-19-900

 

So, folks, if even grains of sand and snowflakes are so diverse, can you imagine how diverse more complex forms are….like lifeforms? Like human beings?

This is one of THE main purposes of the universe – to produce ever more uniqueness, ever more diversity

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Stories more than data

Posted in from the consulting room, from the dark room, health, narrative, photography on January 22, 2014| 3 Comments »

paris park

Sometimes I think there are two kinds of people (that’s nonsense of course because there are as many “kinds” as there are people!). The two kinds I’d like to consider here are those who value stories, and those who value data.

I am still astonished when I remember the conversation I had with a young junior doctor who told me they were being taught “Don’t listen to the patient, they lie all the time. Only the results tell the truth” That is a data teacher talking, and, frankly, I think it’s scary to think such an attitude exists in doctors, especially doctors who are teaching young doctors. (by the way, do you remember a character called “Data“?)

What I love is the story. Every person I meet tells me a new story. It’s in the narrative that I can make sense of their suffering. It’s in the narrative that I can see the connections between the mind, the body and the spirit.

We all use narrative, not only to understand each other, but to make sense of our own lives.

When I first started to explore the use of narrative in medicine, I think the very first article I read was by Rita Charon. Here’s a passage from her book, Narrative Medicine.

What I am trying to convey is the kind of listening that will not only register facts and information but will, between the lines of listening, recognize what the teller is revealing about the self. Conventional medical care has not considered this kind of listening to be its responsibility. Except for some psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, health care professionals cannot give the time or get the training needed to listen for stories. Without knowing what is salient to an illness and what is not, many doctors and nurses fear that such listening will trap them for hours hearing information that is unrelated to disease. Listening to it, they think, will only distract them from the task at hand— to deal with the insomnia or to treat the abdominal pain. Unfortunately, sickness does not travel in straight lines, and we who care for sick people have to be equipped for circuitous journeys if we want to be of help. Although many health care professionals worry that they do not have the time to listen for stories, many of us who have incorporated listening into practice find that time invested early is recouped quickly. Indeed, the first few visits with a patient may take more time than in conventional practice, but time is saved shortly down the road by having developed a more robust clinical alliance from the start. The serious consequences of not being able to do this kind of narratively sophisticated listening is that patients’ symptoms get dismissed, their non-medical concerns get ignored, and treatable disease gets missed. More compellingly, only this kind of narrative listening will hear the connections among body, mind, and self, and disease recognition and treatment cannot proceed, we are beginning to believe, without simultaneous attention to all three.

I think that’s so right. The shame and weakness of the UK NHS is how it is constructed around routine encounters between doctors and patients which last less than ten minutes. What on earth can you understand about a patient in ten minutes? How do you make a diagnosis? No wonder doctors send patients off for X Rays, scans of this, scans of that, and blood tests so much nowadays. But what worries me most about our current model of care, is how prioritising data, results in just what Rita Charon says “patients’ symptoms get dismissed, their non-medical concerns get ignored, and treatable disease gets missed.”

Jennifer Percy, writing in The Atlantic, says

The language of science was unsatisfying to me. “The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it’s comprehensible,” Einstein said. But I don’t think human relationships are ever fully comprehensible. They can clarify for small, beautiful moments, but then they change. Unlike a scientific experiment with rigorous, controlled parameters, our lives are boundless and shifting. And there’s never an end to the story. We need more than science—we need storytelling to capture that kind of complexity, that kind of incomprehensibility.

It’s not just human relationships which are never fully comprehensible, it’s human beings. Can we really apply “rigorous, controlled parameters”, to lives which are “boundless and shifting”?

We do need storytelling to capture the complexity. And we do need to understand that these stories never end.

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Medicine as Meditation Practice

Posted in from the consulting room, from the dark room, from the living room, health, life, personal growth, photography, psychology on January 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

mitsudomo

So, I was told this week I was the most calm person someone had ever met, and asked how did I manage that?

This isn’t the first time. Not by a long way. So the truth is there is something about who I am which allows me to emit a sense of calm. When I was a young hospital doctor (25 years old) and in charge of a Cardiac Arrest Team, the other team members would commonly say that once I arrived on the scene, everyone felt their anxiety level dropped and everyone felt more calm. I never understood how that happened, because my heart would be banging away in my chest and I would feel that bucket loads of adrenaline were storming around my body. But somehow, what I emitted was calm.

However, what occurred to me in response to the question this time was, I’ve learned that calm and ease occur more naturally when we focus on the present. I sometimes say to people that suffering occurs in the gap between fantasy and reality, by which I mean, when we are wishing how things were, instead of experiencing how they are, then we suffer…..regrets, relived hurts, anxieties or fears. The way I practice, and have practiced now for many, many years (this is the year I turn 60), is to fully focus on the person who is consulting me right now. Whether it is for 90 minutes, 20 minutes, or, when I was a GP, only 10 minutes, that piece of time is always fully for this person who is with me. I will listen attentively, engage with them fully, and be completely present. My mind doesn’t wander off to the patient before, or the one about to come next. But whenever that person leaves the room, I let go. And the next patient walks in, and again, I’m fully present with this new person.

What struck me as I thought about that was “what a great meditation practice!” “what great mindfulness practice!” Repeatedly, gently, returning to the present. So maybe that is at least one of the reasons I still absolutely love daily clinical practice. If I’m ever feeling not so great, then a busy clinic gives me a lift. If I’m feeling a bit weary, then the clinic boosts my energy.

I owe a debt of gratitude to my patients over all these years. See what a lot of good they’ve done me!

(And I’m sure it’s a two way benefit. I’m told that all the time.)

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The A – Z of Becoming. C for Choose

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, personal growth, photography on January 19, 2014| 4 Comments »

In the A to Z of Becoming, the third verb is C, for “choose”

path

 

Choose….hmmm, what will I write about choosing? I’ve got a few ideas rattling round my brain, so I’m going to share several of them, and then YOU can choose which inspire you most, or which you want to explore further for yourself.

The first thing I thought about was “choice theory” – the work of William Glasser. I like Glasser’s emphasis on how we create our own experience of reality through the choices we make. I like how he rejects the “external control theory” which suggests we are just puppets or automatons having our buttons pushed. I like his holistic approach to psychology, and, most of all I like his emphasis on verbs.

Secondly, I thought of how empowering it is to move your brain from default reactive mode, to response mode, and how a crucial step in developing that skill is to consciously, mindfully make choices. In reactive mode, we are pretty much on autopilot, blindly following the scripts of others, and it can feel like that. It can feel like we are the trapped victims of circumstances, of society, of others’ choices. Developing response mode, creates that little gap (see “getting neutral“) which allows us to become more conscious of what is happening, and, thereby, to take the opportunity to choose which response we want to make.

Thirdly, I thought of “Amor Fati”, the ancient teaching to “love your Fate”, which is actually advice to fully accept and enjoy the reality of the present, rather than suffering through wishing things weren’t the way they are (see the “suffering gap”)

Fourthly, I thought of choosing a path (like in the photo above which I took in a garden in Japan), and of how every path takes a different route, even if it leads to the same destination. I saw a TV programme during the holidays in December where a regular rambler walked from the West to the East of Scotland up in the far North. He came across countless old drovers paths (where the cattlemen would drive their cattle from the Highlands down to the markets in the South), and shepherd’s paths, and the paths the crofters would take to go from one croft to another, and the hiking routes, and…..well, you get the idea……the wild, open, sparsely populated areas of Scotland are criss-crossed by a myriad of paths, so when you want to walk from one coast to another, you have plenty of choices. Each of those choices will bring its own experiences and its own discoveries.

Fifthly, I thought of how sometimes I deliberately choose to walk down a different road, or to visit a different cafe, or to catch a different train, just to wake myself up and keep me aware that today is indeed a unique and amazing day.

Does any of this inspire you?

Which of these five explorations of choosing appeals to you most?

Which will you choose today?

 

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Subject/object, inside/outside….of what?

Posted in from the consulting room, from the dark room, from the living room, health, life, perception, philosophy, photography on January 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Rain lenses

 

Look carefully at these raindrops and see what you can see within them.

There are all kinds of theories about reality and how we experience it, but in this Age of Modernity, the object, what’s “outside”, what can be measured, what is “physical” has gained almost a monopoly over what is accepted as “real”.

What a patient’s tests or scans show are believed to represent what’s really wrong or right. What a patient reports, relates or describes of their experience – their symptoms, their personal narrative, is often dismissed by researchers as anecdote, or by clinicians as unimportant – “I’m happy to tell you your results are all normal” (“now go away and stop bothering me with your complaints!”). Somehow the lived experience of reality has become less relevant than the measurement of reality. The object trumps the subject.

Yet that objective, physical reality can only be experienced by, can only be measured by, the human subject.

So, in this dialectic, is there some way to grasp reality, to know what is REAL?

I’m not about to solve this one here, but one way of approaching this which appeals to me a lot, is to ask the question “what are these the two poles of?” “Inside and outside of what?” Or to put it another way……If the subject and the object are two sides of the coin, what’s the coin?

Is it the continuous process of becoming which we see everywhere in the universe? Is it the vital force, the Life force, the universal spirit from which all form emerges?

Can we take a perspective on reality which sees BOTH the inside and the outside as valid and important?

That’s why I don’t accept the proposed duality of mind and body, and any understanding of a patient is incomplete without exploring both.

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Time like a river, or time like a tree?

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, perception, personal growth, photography on January 15, 2014| 1 Comment »

waterfall

Is time linear? Is it like this waterfall? Does the future rush towards us, the present pour past us in a constant stream, and the past disappear into the far distance carrying the our daily experiences off into the vast oceans of memory?

Or is it more like a tree?

zen garden

Does time accumulate, like the growing sapwood just under the bark, laying down this year’s experiences on top of last years, each and every ring layered over the previous ones?

The forest becoming

Does the present grow out of the past which doesn’t disappear, but which perpetually lies beneath us, our daily experiences emerging from, growing from, all that has occurred before?

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View from on high

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, movies, perception, personal growth, philosophy, photography, psychology on January 10, 2014| 5 Comments »

jupiter over ben ledi

 

When I looked out of the window this morning I saw a bright star shining over Ben Ledi.

My Starwalk app tells me that what I was looking at was Jupiter, and it was sitting smack in the middle of the constellation Gemini. It was too light to see any of the constellation but you can see how easy it was to see Jupiter.

There’s a saying in French about taking a view from on high (vue d’en haut). The meaning is pretty clear. When you think what it is like to look out over a land or seascape from a cliff or hilltop, you get the idea. In other words, its about taking an overview, seeing the bigger picture, seeing things in their context.

Iain McGilchrist describes how the left and right hemispheres approach the world differently. The left tends to focus in on things. It’s like using a telescope or microscope. It’s great for seeing the details and analysing them. It’s a kind of digital approach. The right however gets first claim on all the information flowing into the brain. It takes the overview, the more holistic, analogue approach. In some ways, you could say our right hemisphere is well designed to allow the view from on high.

The French take a variation of the view from on high, and include the concept in the expanded one of a “view from Sirius”. Sirius is the brightest star in the sky (the planets might look brighter but they aren’t actually stars).In 1752, Voltaire wrote a story entitled “Micromegas” about a giant from Sirius traveling across the universe and coming to Earth to have a look around. Not only does the view from Sirius include the idea of an overview, but it also captures the idea of everything being seen or experienced for the first time. When you travel to a new land, the everyday reality can seem strange and new, and stimulates your curiosity.

So, when I look out and I see the bright shining Jupiter over Ben Ledi, it sets off my thoughts about taking the “view from Sirius” and takes me into the day with a sense of wonder, of open-ness, and of being able to see the bigger pictures.

Taking a look from higher than Ben Ledi, but not as high as Jupiter or Sirius shows us just how thin the biosphere is…..its a pretty thin layer in the scheme of things!

biosphere

 

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The A – Z of Becoming. A for Attend

Posted in from the living room, life, personal growth, photography on January 5, 2014| 10 Comments »

Over the course of the next six months, I’m going to share with you some thoughts on 26 verbs….one per week. Each verb is an action. Each of these actions will support your process of becoming as fully YOU as you can be. I believe that’s why we are here – to develop and manifest the uniqueness of who we are. Every single one of us is an utterly unique expression of the universe. There is no other, has been no other, will be no other, expression of the universe with the same uniqueness as YOU.

This is a life process, and its a process of becoming. It’s not a process with a fixed end point, and we never quite know how it’s all going to go but I’m working from the core belief that every day I can contribute to this process of becoming by choosing how to live, by choosing which actions to take.

So, let’s start with A.

My A verb is ATTEND.

Let’s think about some of the meanings of the verb, attend.

  1. to be present at
  2. to go with, or accompany
  3. to take care of
  4. to wait upon
  5. to watch over, or look after
  6. to listen to, or give heed to
  7. to wait for or expect.

The English word, attend, comes from the 14th century French, “attendre”, meaning “to direct one’s mind or energies”, “to wait for, pay attention”, and from the Latin, “attendere” which literally means “to stretch toward” (or “give heed to”)

So, what are you choosing to be present with today? What, or who, are you choosing to be with, to accompany?

What, or who, are you taking care of, looking after, listening to, or giving heed to?

What are you waiting for, or what do you expect of today? What are you “stretching toward”, reaching out to?

Attending to something involves paying it attention, and it seems to be that whatever we pay attention to gets bigger. The more we think about a particular issue, the more that issue looms large in our minds. Attending to, in that sense, is a bit like a magnifying glass.
Attend

Lotus root and yen

So, when we attend to something, or someone, today, whether that be our thoughts or feelings, or objects, people, activities……whatever it is will grow.

What do we want to grow? Which thoughts, which feelings? Who, or what, do we want to nurture?

I’m only going to share one verb a week, and I’m going to explore that verb every day for a week (that doesn’t mean I’ll write about it here every day, mind you!) I invite you to share this with me. I’m inviting you to explore these verbs with me and share as much of your exploration as you want, in whatever way you want…..comments, your own blog, Facebook, tweets, instagrams…..whatever works for you.

This is an invitation to participate in becoming more truly, more fully YOU.

 

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Has 2013 really gone?

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, perception, personal growth, photography on January 4, 2014| 3 Comments »

Where did 2013 go?
Where does the past go?
Does it go anywhere?
Is time like this long road?

DSC_0167.JPG

Was 2013 like a car, making its way along time’s highway? And disappearing into the far distance as we look?

That’s one way to look at it, but then look at this tree….

DSC_0062

The very shape of the tree tells a story, contains a history, reveals its past. Doesn’t it?

So what if time isn’t like a straight line, with the future speeding towards us, and the past soon behind us and out of sight?

What if time is cumulative? What if the past doesn’t go away anywhere, but instead continues to exist underneath the present?

Doesn’t the present emerge from an ongoing interaction between what’s possible, what’s happened already, and what else is happening now?

Think of 2013 as still here, underneath today, and out of which 2014 will grow. After all, if 2013 wasn’t still here, then what would 2014 emerge from? Nothingness?

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January – the month of Janus, God of gateways and doorways

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, personal growth, photography on January 3, 2014| 2 Comments »

Japanese Garden

January is named after Janus – who looks both forwards and backwards. Janus is often represented over a gateway or doorway, and it strikes me that January is a kind of doorway. We say goodbye to the previous year, looking back, reflecting, remembering, and using that recall to inform our hopes, ideas, and even plans for the coming year.
I don’t think this is something to do just on the 1st, or even in the first few days (by the way, I read a study today which said 26% of men give up diets after ONE DAY!), but that we could take a theme for this month – make this the theme of gateways, of doorways, a moment to pause, reflect and dream – both of those entwined, letting reflections stimulate dreams, and dreams stimulate reflections.
This is different from making resolutions (even sustainable ones!).
Why not get yourself a notebook, or create a new document on your computer or tablet, and allow yourself to record your daily reflections and dreams for the month? See what emerges…..

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